


Hopeless Hope

by Benedicthiddleston



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Darkness, Drama, Gen, One-Shot, Sadness, Tragedy, still in tune with the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 03:11:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benedicthiddleston/pseuds/Benedicthiddleston
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A take on the last tower scene. A dark cloud descends...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopeless Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to ff.net on 12/15/2010 - transferring all worthy fanfics to A03/deleting ff.net account. 
> 
> Unbetaed. I OWN NOTHING!!!!!!!

_And a dark cloud descends._

Rapunzel felt the crushing weight. Eugene was probably dead. Hung for the crimes he had, albeit, willingly committed. And she was helpless, chained to the stairs, gagged, as her mother hurriedly packed a day bag. They were going away. _Far_ away. No one would ever find her - and that was all Mother Gothel wanted.

Her heart couldn't take it. She couldn't go on without Eugene… without Flynn. He was the only one who had actually made her feel normal - like someone who belonged out there. But he was gone. And she was left with pieces and shattered, broken pieces of a heart. She was not even sure she would ever be whole again. _I'm a nobody… a Princess who will never see the world again… Hopelessly lost._

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"

Mother Gothel grits her teeth, hearing that voice - that threatening voice. She glares at Rapunzel, a glare to freeze the sun millions of miles away.

Rapunzel wants to cry out to the voice, to the one she loves. But the gag can't stop Gothel from dropping Rapunzel's hair out the window and over the side of the tower to Eugene. She also has no power over the glint of a knife in her hands as she stands in the darkened shadows light does not penetrate, waiting for the thief that should have died early that morning. _Oh my Eugene!_

Nothing could go right it seemed as Eugene's hands appeared on the window sill, her hair his rope. He hoisted himself up, jumping into the room. He saw his prize, Rapunzel, beside the stairs. But it was seconds too late when Rapunzel's muffled and frantic cries, the gag, and the chains warned him of what shadowed the light from behind him. He didn't have time to react as something slides between ribs, jamming a lung, and then is forced out. He gasps in unwanted pain, recoiling onto the ground as Mother Gothel, formal and informal introduction with no words, steps over him, her voice chilling his already fighting body. "Now look what you've done, Rapunzel. Oh, don't you worry, dear. Our secret will die with him."

Rapunzel stares sickly as Eugene struggles with the pain, only so many thoughts invading as both realize the end is going to come. Gothel is willing to leave Eugene to his death to keep her alive, young, and healthy. _Everything comes to this one moment..._

Gothel pulls at Rapunzel's chains, the door to the steps winding down to the ground wide open. "And as for us, we are going where no one will ever find you."

But Rapunzel fights. She pulls, trying to get away, trying to reach Eugene. He's going to die, and she can't live without him. Not if he's dead. _But if I can save him, I would be willing to live apart from him. I have to know he is safe. He was the one to show me the wonderful world out there. He is… my everything_. "Rapunzel! Really! Enough already! STOP FIGHTING ME!"

She finally feels the gag fall away from the fighting and she cries it. "NO! I won't stop. For every minute, for the rest of my life, I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!" She can tell she has struck a chord, as Gothel's face takes on more rage. But Rapunzel had one last card to play. "If you let me save him, I will go with you." She softens her face, hoping to convince mommy dearest to let her save Eugene.

But he's pretty much unwilling. He's losing blood fast and the world swims. But he can't let her agree to it. "No! Please, no, Rapunzel!"

She ignores him though, focusing in on Gothel. "I'll never run. I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal him. And you and I will be together. Forever. Just like you want. Just… just let me heal him." She whispers it, feeling her heart break. She needed this. She needed him alive, out there… somewhere, without her. She had to know he was safe.

Gothel contemplates these words, giving Rapunzel a sadistic look. She looks over at Eugene and sighs. The chains are off and Rapunzel bolts to her love. But Gothel instead chains Eugene to the stairs seconds later, keeping him from running after them once Rapunzel saved his worthless, pitiful life.

He's moaning, telling Rapunzel off. She's gathered her hair up, trying to place it, ready to sing. He doesn't want it though. He knows what it will be like, knowing she would be in captivity for the rest of her life. Eugene didn't want to live without her. He needed a plan, fast.

"Everything will be fine, Eugene. Just let me do this." Rapunzel puts a hand to his wound, her hair close by. But he's resistant. She doesn't understand why. She needs him to live. She's not letting him die.

"Rapunzel, no. I can't let you…" Eugene struggles with the pain, but an instant plan comes to mind. Shards of glass, from the mirror broken and thrown around the room are so close by. He reaches. Rapunzel is desperate. He pulls her closer, wanting that last kiss, tempting her as he gives up. But at the last possible moment he frees her from everything - her promise, her powers, and her only way to save him. The glass slices through her hair, the golden locks instantly turning brown.

Rapunzel gasped, her eyes wildly turning around to watch as Gothel screamed and gathered up the quickly-turned brown hair. There was no power left. Her hair was cut.

"No! What have you done? NO!" But Gothel lost that fight, aging so rapidly and quickly. She went back to what she had started as - dust and ashes, into nothing - given back to nature.

She didn't have time to react though. She spun, all her attention back on Eugene _. No, no, why the hell did you do that_? She screamed it within her head, but her motions were trying to keep him alive. He seemed between the unconscious and conscious world, eyes closed, breathing slowing _. Eugene, I love you. Please, please don't go. Not from me._

"Oh no! Eugene! Don't go! Stay with me!" She cried, taking his hand, going slack on the floor, to her hair, trying to find the strength and the power to bring him back to the living world. Or to stop him from falling so far and so hard. Without her magic, he would fall. And she could not go there. "Don't leave me. I can't do this without you."

He felt the world spin. He was so close to that white light… But her pleas gave him enough strength, with her arms around him, to give her one last look. He could see the growing tears, her desperation. "Hey… you… were my… new dream…" She was everything he had been looking for. And he hadn't known he'd been looking. Now he had given her her freedom, and that was enough peace to die this way. Somehow, it all would end up with his life lost. This way, good had come from it all. He was no Flynn Ryder - not anymore. He was Eugene Fitzherbert. And he wanted to be remembered that way… saving the Lost Princess. _I'm a sad sight for sore eyes…_

She gulped, knowing he was right. He was her new dream, after the lights. And she didn't want him to die. "You were mine."

The light seemed to grow and then the dark crowded in. Eugene fell into the nothing that accompanied death. Rapunzel drew him close, his body going limp in her arms. She started to sing, trying so hard to will him back to life. She needed him. She couldn't go on without him. _So this is what it feels like when everything you have ever known is taken from you… gone forever… some Princess I am…_

A single tear slid down her face. Her heart was broken. She may have found out she was the Princess, but there was no use. Eugene was gone, and there was nothing left in the short hair she was not accustomed to atop her head.

But the tear hit Eugene's cheek and in a moment of utter hopelessness, a brilliant, bright, wonderful light filled the darkened, dreary tower. She gasped as the light spread through Eugene's body. _I have one last gift… one last ounce of magic… Eugene?_

A few seconds passed and the light, a flower, a drop of sunlight, slipped away.

And then he breathed in.


End file.
